It is with great sadness that we received the news about Professor Peder J. Pedersen's death. Peder J. Pedersen died suddenly at the end of July of a heart attack at the age of 80 years.
Peder J. Pedersen was cand.polit. from University of Copenhagen, and got his doctoral degree at the Department of Economics in 1984. Peder started his academic career as an assistant professor at Copenhagen Business School in 1970. In 1974, he and his family moved to Aarhus, and he was employed at the Department of Economics as an associate professor. In 1983, he became professor at Aarhus School of Business, and later, in 1991, professor at the Department of Economics at Aarhus University, where he was employed until his death – the last ten years as an emeritus professor.
With Peder J. Pedersen's death, Denmark has lost one of its major economists. During half a century, he influenced economic research and the public debate on the welfare state and the Danish labour market. Peder was a member of several government commissions and committees. Over the years 1985-1991 he was a member of the chairmanship of the Danish Economic Council (vismand), and he was board member in a number of public and private companies. He was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in 1993, and he was a very active researcher in Danish and international research networks and conferences throughout his career. Peder never actually retired; he was always working on new research projects, and had new publications in the pipeline until his death.
Peder J. Pedersen's CV is long and impressive and covers many different topics within the fields of social and labour market economics: Income distribution and poverty, trade unions, organisation and strikes, international migration and integration, labour supply, taxation and incentives, as well as retirement age and withdrawal – All research topics of great relevance to society. Peder had the ability to always become absorbed in research topics of major socio-economic relevance, and he often contributed with his knowledge of the weakest groups in society – always based on solid and thorough empirical analyses. Even when Peder was not performing the actual programming of the statistical analyses, he could often – after a glance at the results – assess whether the analyses had been done correctly. Peder was also known for his extremely extensive knowledge of both Danish and international labour market conditions, and he was an endless source of knowledge about historical and current economic conditions. All of which colleagues could always count on benefiting from.
In the late 1970s, Danish and international economic research was characterised by new trends in terms of understanding the persistently high unemployment rates, which also characterised the Danish economy. New register data at Statistics Denmark including unemployment data, education data and income data provided a unique opportunity to test new theories. Peder and his colleagues at Aarhus University (Henning Bunzel, Niels Westergaard-Nielsen, Peter Jensen, Lars Muus and Nina Smith) joined forces in establishing an entirely new research environment within empirical labour market research which was to contribute to explaining the high structural unemployment in Denmark.
The 'Labour Market Group' and later the basic research centre CLS (1993-1998), which Peder was one of the founders of, became a very long-standing, strong research community, which gained great impact, and provided valuable input to the economic-political debate about solving the large structural problems in the Danish labour market.
The members of Labour Market Group were probably the first researchers in the world to get access to administrative register data from Statistics Denmark in 1982. Peder was a driving force in establishing research based on register data on, among other things, unemployment. Later, many other research topics were added based on the new opportunities provided by the use of register data. When Peder became a member of the chairmanship of the Economic Council in 1985, he thus contributed to setting the agenda for the work of the Council members, and he was a driving force of the famous report from 1988 in which the Council members, for the first time, focused intensely on the large structural problems that characterised the labour market at the time using register-based analyses . This helped trigger the major political-economic reform work of the next two decades.
Later, Peder’s research interest turned in the direction of pension systems and withdrawal from the labour market, and for two decades he contributed to the National Bureau of Economic Research’ (NBER) International Social Security project in collaboration with Nabanita Datta Gupta, Malene Kallestrup-Lamb and Paul Bingley from VIVE. The project maps the effect of incentives in pension systems on retirement behaviour in the OECD countries. Also in this international collaboration, Peder was an incredibly insightful and skilled co-author, and his knowledge and expertise in the fields of pensions, retirement and the labour market in Denmark was inexhaustible.
Peder was an incredibly good colleague, and over the years he has taken many young researchers under his wing and helped them along in their careers. Through all the years, he was a cherished supervisor for countless Master's thesis students, and a very talented and inspiring lecturer.
We will remember Peder as an extremely competent economist and a really good friend, and we will miss our talented, humorous, inspiring, warm, positive and ever-giving colleague. Our deepest sympathy and thoughts go to Bodil, Peder’s children Morten and Marie and the grandchildren.
In respect of Peder’s memory.
On behalf of Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University
Nina Smith, Henning Bunzel, Malene Kallestrup-Lamb and Nabanita Datta Gupta
Det er med stor sorg at vi modtog beskeden om Professor Peder J. Pedersens død. Peder J. Pedersen døde pludseligt sidst i juli af et hjertetilfælde i en alder af 80 år.
Peder J. Pedersen var cand. polit. fra Københavns Universitet og fik senere sin doktorgrad ved Økonomisk Institut i 1984. Peder startede sin akademiske karriere som adjunkt ved Handelshøjskolen i København i 1970. I 1974 flyttede han sammen med familien til Aarhus og blev ansat på Økonomisk Institut som lektor. I 1983 blev han professor på Handelshøjskolen i Aarhus og senere, i 1991, professor på Økonomisk Institut på Aarhus Universitet, hvor han var ansat indtil sin død, de sidste 10 år som professor emeritus.
Med Peder J. Pedersens død har Danmark mistet en af sine store økonomer, som igennem et halvt århundrede har været med til at præge den økonomiske forskning og samfundsdebatten om velfærdsstaten og det danske arbejdsmarked. Peder var medlem af adskillige regeringskommissioner og udvalg og var i 1985-1991 medlem af Det Økonomiske Råds formandskab (vismand), ligesom han bestred vigtige bestyrelsesposter både i offentlige og private virksomheder. Han blev optaget i Det Kongelige Videnskabernes Selskab i 1993, og han var en meget aktiv forsker i danske og internationale forskningsnetværk og konferencer igennem hele sin karriere. Peder gik reelt aldrig på pension og var lige til sin død aktiv og i gang med nye forskningsprojekter og havde nye publikationer i pipelinen.
Peder J. Pedersens CV er langt og omfatter mange forskellige emner inden for social- og arbejdsmarkedsøkonomiske områder: Lavindkomster og indkomstfordeling, fagforeninger, organiseringsgrad og strejker, international migration og integration, arbejdsudbud, beskatning og incitamenter, samt pensionsalder og tilbagetrækning. Alt sammen forskningsemner med meget stor samfundsrelevans. Peder havde en evne til altid at kaste sig over forskningsmæssige emner, som kunne bidrage til indsigt i de store samfundsøkonomiske emner i tiden, og ofte bidrage med viden om de svageste grupper i samfundet, altid baseret på solide og grundige empiriske analyser. Selvom det ikke altid var Peder, der sad med programmeringen af de statistiske analyser, kunne han ofte efter et enkelt blik på analyseresultaterne vurdere, om resultaterne var holdbare, eller om der måske skulle yderligere analyser til for at sikre, at resultaterne var korrekte. Peder var også kendt for sin helt utroligt store viden om både danske og internationale arbejdsmarkedsforhold, og han var en nærmest uendelig kilde af viden om både historiske og aktuelle økonomiske forhold. Alt sammen noget som kolleger altid kunne regne med at nyde godt af.
I slutningen af 1970erne var den danske og internationale økonomiske forskning præget af nye vinde med hensyn til at forstå den vedvarende høje arbejdsløshed, der også prægede dansk økonomi. Nye registerdata i Danmarks Statistik med arbejdsløshedsdata, uddannelsesdata og indkomstdata gav en enestående mulighed for at efterprøve disse nye teorier. Peder gik sammen med kolleger ved Aarhus Universitet (Henning Bunzel, Niels Westergaard-Nielsen, Peter Jensen, Lars Muus og Nina Smith) i gang med at opbygge et helt nyt miljø omkring empirisk arbejdsmarkedsforskning, som skulle bidrage til at forklare den meget høje strukturelle ledighed i Danmark.
’Arbejdsmarkedsgruppen’ og senere grundforskningscentret CLS (1993-1998), som Peder var en af grundlæggerne bag, blev til et meget langvarigt stærkt forskningsfællesskab, som satte sig stærke spor forskningsmæssigt, men også som input til den økonomisk-politiske debat om at løse de store strukturproblemer på det danske arbejdsmarked.
Som de formentlig første forskere i verden fik Arbejdsmarkedsgruppen adgang til administrative registerdata fra Danmarks Statistik i 1982. Peder var en drivende kraft i at opbygge forskningen baseret på registerdata om bl.a. ledighed, og senere kom mange andre forskningsemner til, baseret på netop de nye muligheder som anvendelsen af registerdata gav. Da Peder blev medlem af Det Økonomiske Råds formandskab i 1985, var han derfor også med til at sætte dagsordenen for vismændenes arbejde og havde bl.a. en stor andel i den berømte rapport fra 1988, hvor vismændene for første gang med en række registerbaserede analyser satte kraftigt fokus på de store strukturelle problemer, som arbejdsmarkedet på daværende tidspunkt var præget af. Det var med til at give startskuddet for de næste to årtiers store politisk-økonomiske reformarbejde.
Senere kastede Peder sig over pensionssystemer og tilbagetrækning fra arbejdsmarkedet, hvor han i to årtier bidrog til National Bureau of Economic Research’ (NBER) ’International Social Security’ projekt i samarbejde med Nabanita Datta Gupta, Malene Kallestrup-Lamb og Paul Bingley fra VIVE. Projektet kortlægger effekten af incitamenter i pensionssystemer på tilbagetrækningsadfærden i OECD landene. Også i dette internationale samarbejde var Peder en utrolig klog og dygtig medforfatter, og hans viden og faglighed omkring pensioner, tilbagetrækning og arbejdsmarkedet i Danmark var uudtømmelig.
Som menneske var Peder en utrolig god kollega, som i årenes løb har taget mange yngre forskere under sine vinger og hjulpet dem videre i karrieren. Han var gennem de mange år en elsket vejleder for utallige specialestuderende, og en meget dygtig og inspirerende forelæser.
Vi vil huske Peder som en fantastisk dygtig økonom og en rigtig god ven, og vi vil savne vores dygtige, humoristiske, inspirerende, varme, positivsindede og altid givende kollega. Vores dybeste medfølelse og varmeste tanker går til Bodil, Peders børn Morten og Marie og børnebørnene.
Æret være Peders minde
På vegne af Institut for Økonomi, Aarhus Universitet,
Nina Smith, Henning Bunzel, Malene Kallestrup-Lamb og Nabanita Datta Gupta
Participation in international networks in recent years: